House Dems Chide GOP On Legislative Record

For Immediate Release:

May 20, 2004

Contact:Staff

CongressDaily

Top House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Pelosi and House Minority Whip Hoyer, today will highlight major bills Congress has failed to pass this session, including a reauthorization of surface transportation programs, a repeal of the foreign sales corporation/extraterritorial income tax scheme, a comprehensive energy package and a full, five-year FY05 budget resolution.

"These are major bills that are not getting done because Republicans are so averse to compromise," said a senior Democratic leadership aide, who cited Democratic complaints of short work weeks and repeat votes on the GOP's eight-week economic agenda as a poor use of time in an already abbreviated session.

However, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio offered her own critique of Democrats Wednesday.

"[Democrats] certainly can't boast about tax relief -- they don't support it. They aren't bragging about adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare -- they wanted no part of it. And you will not hear them touting the liberation of more than 20 million people in Iraq -- they'd rather call the efforts of our military there unwinnable," she said.